Grant: Strategic Projects - Group

The planar platform is a fundamental component in photonics integration. It is also compatible with LSI electronics and holds great promise for the future development of all optical integrated circuits, combining electronics, photonics, signal processing and ultra-high speeds. The optical fibre has also been the backbone for enabling high speed communications, but remains a single pipe through which wavelength, time or spatial multiplexing allows enhanced functionality. Lately, multi-core fibres are allowing further integration as an overlay to the basic platform of the fibre. Unfortunately, the optical fibre is really not compatible with planar integrated circuits. This proposal address this specific problem to allow a future-proof solution to flexible optical circuit integration and interconnects in the form of an optical tape. This optical tape will be fabricated using traditional techniques for optical fibre manufacturing, allowing a cost-effective solution to the problem of fabrication. The optical tape will allow the integration of functionalised devices written with the help of lasers and be directly compatible with optical fibres and planar integrated optical platforms.